Ibogaine and opiates/opioids

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What Is Iboga?

Tabernanthe iboga is a powerful psychedelic from West Africa that has been in use for centuries in traditional healing ceremonies. It can be used in its traditional form from the root bark of the plant (known as iboga), or in the laboratory-isolated form of ibogaine which only contains the central psychoactive substance (known as ibogaine). Today iboga is best known for its miraculous ability to cure or drastically reduce addiction to substances like alcohol, crack cocaine, and heroin in a single treatment. It can also help people overcome addiction to prescription opiates such as morphine, methadone, Vicodin, Percocet, and OxyContin. While this may sound too good to be true, scores of personal testimonies and now clinical research is backing up this claim, and iboga treatment centers are popping up all over the world specializing in treating addiction, post traumatic stress, and mood disorders.

Ibogaine addiction recovery therapy

Ibogaine is "the closest thing to a silver bullet for addiction as you’ll ever find. If there ever was a miracle drug for eliminating opiate withdrawals and addiction, Ibogaine is it."

Ibogaine is an indole alkaloid found in the bark of the root of the African shrub Tabernan. It has strong anti-addictive qualities, including high efficacy in acute opioid withdrawal and addiction. In laymen’s terms, Ibogaine is a secret tribal hallucinogen that helps you achieve your two most difficult goals.

2) Ibogaine eliminates the desire for opiates/opioids. Many people who have taken Ibogaine swear that it cured their addiction altogether.

Ibogaine treatment has a mortality rate of 1 in 300, with deaths coming from brachycardia (heart rate slowing way down) and lethal combinations with other drugs. The risks of this treatment should therefore be weighed very carefully, and treatment should only be done in a medical setting.

People with a history of heart attack, heart murmurs, arrhythmia, heart operations or severe obesity should not take ibogaine. Before taking ibogaine the individual should not use his drug of choice for the time period the drug needs to be sufficiently eliminated.

Ibogaine is considered the 'active' compound in the Tabernanthe iboga plant, used for centuries as a healer, teacher, and catalyst for ceremonies by the Bwiti people indigenous to
what is now the Central-west African republic of Gabon. But the versatile plant has remained virtually unknown in the West, where it has a very different history. Researcher Howard Lotsof, PhD, addicted to heroin and methadone, discovered the anti-addictive action of ibogaine in 1962. Given a capsule of pure ibogaine HCL by a trusted friend who was familiar with chemistry, Lotsof was simply seeking a new high. He was astonished when coming out of this difficult experience 36-opiate-abstinent hours later to realize he had no physical craving for opiates, and even more remarkably, very little of the agonizing physical symptoms normally associated with opiate withdrawal.

Ibogaine is the only treatment for heroin, opiate, opioid, crystal meth and fentanyl addiction that can eliminate withdrawal and craving within 30 to 45 minutes.

Ibogaine is not currently approved for any medical uses in the U.S. It is used as an alternative medicine treatment for drug addiction in some countries. Its prohibition has slowed scientific research. The use of Ibogaine for drug treatment is now accepted in Canada, Mexico, France, and the UK. In many cases, administration of a therapeutic course of Ibogaine is followed by intensive counseling therapy. Often more than one round of the drug is needed for lasting sobriety.

I'll say that my ibogaine flood dose changed my life, I'd been addicted to opiates for 10 years with a number of short breaks where I got past acute withdrawals, once for 8 months, but I always went back. I was feeling like I was going to be on opiates forever. That coupled with a bad relationships (big part of why I was on them) were making me feel so beat down that I thought I was damaged forever, I felt like a shell of my former self, I wanted to die every day. Not quite suicidal but I would fantasize about it. I got out of my relationship and after a couple of months of still being unable to shake opiates, I did a flood dose. I came out of it not wanting opiates, even though I still felt a bit of residual withdrawal-style effects for a few weeks afterwards I didn't have any desire to do opiates, I have not even had a craving since and it's been over 3 years. I also started working out and made a lot of changes in my life, I can't even really explain why but it was like the ibogaine woke me up, snapped me out of that crazy place I had gotten myself to, and I felt vibrant and healthy again. I took that period of time, that sort of reset, to actually make changes in my life so I would remain happy and not want to go back to opiates to seek oblivion. I would say ibogaine wasn't a magic cure, I still had to put in the work afterwards but it was absolutely the most powerful medicine I have taken. It gave me that reset so that I could address my problems from a good place, rather than through the fog of opiate addiction and deep depression. It really helped change my life, and I don't know that I would have done it without ibogaine's help.

It doesn't seem to provide as powerful and life-changing of an experience as I had to everyone, but I do believe that with proper preparation (for example I forced myself to go from poppy tea (oral opium, mainly morphine) to kratom which has a much shorter half-life, and then a week before I stopped taking any opiates at all and dealt with the withdrawals. I feel like it put me in an optimal place to be able to really accept the experience and treat it with the significance it deserves. I was also ready to have a change because I had already finally ended my abusive relationship that was the root cause of my suffering.

-Xorkoth

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Ibogaine, drug to end all drugs

By Tristram Korten

On his 30th birthday, Patrick Kroupa was arrested for possession of heroin in Manhattan. “I turned 30 in the Tombs,” he says, referring to the notorious jail beneath the criminal courthouse. In the dank concrete cell, the magnitude of what he had lost overwhelmed him, and he resolved to quit.

It wouldn’t be his first effort. “I probably tried 18 to 20 medically supervised detox programs over the years, and maybe another 75 do-it-yourself attempts,” he says. Among the programs he tried: substitution therapies like methadone and buprenorphine, which replace heroin with a milder opiate; ultra-rapid detox, in which the addict is anesthetized to help with the withdrawal process; and a medical procedure using a TENS unit in which electrical currents stimulate the brain. But with each method, withdrawal was unavoidable, and Kroupa winces at the memories:

“All of them just meant pain, real pain.” And none of them worked.

Then he heard about Dr. Mash, who ran a treatment center on the Caribbean island of St. Kitts. In October 1999 Kroupa rounded up the $10,000 necessary to enroll. When he first arrived, he was in the throes of withdrawal— cramping, cold sweats. “My spine felt like it was being crushed,” he recalls.

Kroupa’s treatment consisted of wearing a blindfold on a bed in a darkened room, listening to soothing music through earphones, and ingesting about 12 milligrams per kilogram of body weight of ibogaine hydrochloride in capsule form, all the while attached to a bank of machines that monitored his vital signs. “Within 30 to 35 minutes, this ball of heat went up my spine and the pain just let go,” Kroupa recounts. “Nothing has ever done that. It was like my habit was a bad dream, a mirage. And before I can focus on what just happened, I start tripping. Eight and a half hours later, they take the blinds off.”

Kroupa says he felt cured. He no longer craved heroin. But it didn’t change 16 years of behavioral patterns that led him to heroin in the first place. On his way back to the U.S., Kroupa’s plane stopped over in Puerto Rico, and he promptly copped a bag of heroin. A month later, strung out again, he returned to St. Kitts for another treatment. He’s been clean ever since.

-Patrick Kroupa

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So I just did ibogaine in Mexico...

First a little background to my story: I'm an opioid addict to the core. Prior to the ibogaine experience, I was intravenously and intramusclarly using around 1200 milligrams of oxycodone + usually ten OxyContin 120s a day (yes, they exist in Europe), and topping it off with morphine ampoules (at least 200mg a day), in addition to about half a gram of heroin. Yes, this was my daily usage, and to top it off I was swallowing approximately 140mg of diazepam (Valium) a day to potentiate the opioids, simply because my tolerance
was too damn high. As well as this I was smoking about half a gram of crack cocaine every other day on top of my opioid usage.

I flew to San Diego and met up with the three other people I would be undergoing the experience with as well as the staff from the clinic. There was me, the dope fiend, Michaela the pill-head (oxycodone), Mike the methamphetamine enthusiast, and a gentleman from Mexico City named Adon who's favorite thing in the world was crack cocaine. We all had blood tests and EKGs done to make sure that we would be safe for the ibogaine experience, and we all passed.

The next night was the big night. The way the ibogaine treatment works occurred like so:

- Firstly (at least for us dope fiends) they wait until we're in moderate withdrawal.
- The clinic used 18mg/kg of ibogaine hydrochloride for each patient, which is pretty standard.
- Next, everyone is given a "tester dose" to see how you react. We all responded fine.
- Around 45 minutes after the "tester dose" we get the "flood dose". Then, the magic begins.

About 10 minutes after the tester dose, any withdrawal symptoms I had were obliterated. The staff gave us all eye masks since the real processing of trauma occurs during closed eye visuals. About 5 minutes before the "flood dose", I had to pee, and one of the staff members helped me to the bathroom. It's hard to walk straight, and the closest description I can give to open-eye visuals on ibogaine is the matrix; if you move your head, the universe moves with it with blue and purple matrix-like lines.

After the "flood dose, " almost everyone purged a little (vomited), but it wasn't too unpleasant. Around half an hour after, the Iboga spirit (Grandfather Iboga, whatever one chooses to call him/her appeared to me). He appeared to me as a black man, an African warrior type being, and told me that he was here to help me. I began immediately thinking about my father, as I have much childhood trauma associated with him. Iboga clapped his hands, and my dad appeared. My father looked drunk, and had an aggressive, angry expression on his face, with his fists in the air like he was about to beat me. Suddenly, Iboga clapped his hands again, and instantly my father transformed into a scared little boy, perhaps around age eleven, crying about being beaten by his grandfather (his primary caregiver during his childhood). This vision humbled me to a level I'd never felt before; the massive resentment I held towards my dad was uprooted out of me by Iboga.

Iboga explained to me that when my father was 18, he had a younger brother who committed suicide by hanging himself, and my father had never been able to process the trauma from that event. Iboga explained to me that my father just wanted a better life for me than he had, but he just didn't know how to be a dad. I forgave him.

Next, came my mother. Iboga did something very different this time: he transformed me into my mother, and all of a sudden I felt all the pain and suffering that I had caused her during my addiction through lying, stealing, manipulating. This vision humbled me to a level I never felt before, and after the experience, I cannot bring myself to lie to her without bawling my eyes out, precisely because I was her and I felt all the pain I had caused her. Iboga allowed me to forgive myself for the pain I caused the woman who loved me more than anyone else in the world, but he emphasized that I must never again cause her that type of pain.

In all honesty, it did not take away my desire to use opioids entirely (strangely it made me more averse to crack cocaine), but it is much easier not to use. I am currently in an aftercare facility for 28 days, because I know I cannot live an actual life by being physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually dependent on opioids and crack cocaine. I am also currently detoxing from the diazepam that I was taking (unfortunately ibogaine doesn't cure that), and I honestly would trade benzodiazepine withdrawals for opiate withdrawals any day of the week.

It's a miracle cure if you truly desire it to be, but god damn does it annihilate my opioid addiction. I am in a state of transition, but I hope and pray for the best.

-VendettaG550

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Resets & relapses: Ibogaine's role in combating opiate addiction

By Benjamin Taub

In a recent TED Talk, journalist Johann Hari suggested that “The opposite of addiction is not sobriety. The opposite of addiction is connection”. In other words, drug misuse often occurs as an attempt to fill the void when the social bonds that give meaning to our lives are missing or broken.

To highlight his point, Hari cites Bruce Alexander's Rat Park experiment, in which rodents kept in solitary confinement displayed a high propensity for drug misuse, while those with social stimulation did not. Naturally, this experiment is unlikely to ever be repeated using human subjects, although having spent the past year working at an ibogaine treatment centre, my experiences all point towards a very similar conclusion.

By way of introduction, ibogaine is a highly psychoactive alkaloid found in the root bark of a West African shrub called iboga. Because of its potent hallucinogenic effects, the plant has been used in spiritual healing and initiation rituals by indigenous communities for centuries, and in 1962 somehow found its way into the hands of a heroin-dependent New Yorker named Howard Lotsof.

After ingesting the substance and undergoing an intense psychedelic trip, Lotsof was astounded to discover that his opiate withdrawals and cravings had completely vanished -- an effect which has since been confirmed by a number of small-scale clinical studies.

As a consequence, an underground network of global ibogaine providers has sprung up over recent decades in places like Mexico, Costa Rica and New Zealand. However, with the substance being outlawed in several countries (including the US) and totally unregulated by the mainstream pharmaceutical industry, it remains off the table as an official treatment option.

Therefore, while some have labeled ibogaine a “magic bullet” for addiction -- citing the many anecdotal reports of people who have managed to end years of drug misuse with just a single dose of ibogaine -- the reality is that research into its long-term effects has been stunted, making it hard to separate the facts from the hype.

Yet if there's one thing I've learnt from working with ibogaine, it's that it doesn’t “cure” addiction all by itself. Rather, as the following case studies* highlight, when combined with the healthy restructuring of someone’s social environment, it can provide a unique and powerful tool in the quest of those seeking to tackle their addiction.

Erika's story

“I saw myself shrink into oblivion and just disappear off the face of the Earth, before re-emerging as a new-born baby. It's like I've been given the chance to start again as a completely new person -- like a second opportunity.”

This was how Erika described her ibogaine experience immediately after her treatment. Like almost all patients, she felt her withdrawals completely disappear soon after ingesting the substance, while at the same time undergoing an intense physical and psychological detox, which manifested itself as a vision of her own death. She described the sensation as a kind of bodily and mental “reset”.

However, within two months of her treatment, Erika relapsed. Trying to come to terms with how this happened, she explained that although she “didn't feel any physical cravings,” she simply did not know how to live without drugs, and was unable to occupy the social world of people not suffering from addiction.

“I tried to make new friends so that I could leave all my old contacts behind and start again, but none of them really understood me,” she said. “So in the end I had nowhere to go with this second opportunity that ibogaine had given me.”

As a result, she soon found herself back at the house of her ex-boyfriend, who had always been her main supplier of heroin, and it wasn't long before she began using again.

Summing up, Erika stated that “ibogaine can give you the chance to start over, but if you go back to all your old places and your old people, it won't work. You'll just become your old self again.”

Erika's story exemplifies Hari's point, that tackling addiction requires more than just physical sobriety; it involves the construction of a new lifestyle, supported by new social relations.

By allowing users to temporarily shed parts of their “ego” along with their withdrawals, the ibogaine-reset effect represents just the first step of this process: it offers a doorway out of the world of addiction, but doesn't necessarily provide anywhere else to go; it breaks a person’s bond with a drug, but doesn’t replace that bond with a new and healthier one.

Therefore, as the following case demonstrates, successfully leaving addiction behind can more often than not only be achieved by connecting to others.

David’s story

“I visualised all the bad relationships in my life, and realised I had to end them. Then I saw myself covered in black horns, which began falling off one by one. It was like the old me was dying and I was becoming a new person – like a total reset.”

David's description of his ibogaine experience bears many similarities to that of Erika’s, with the main difference being that one year later, he hasn’t relapsed. This he attributes to his ability to develop his identity as a “new person”, not only in his own eyes but those of others as well.

“Since my treatment, everyone says I’m a different person”, he explains. This has enabled him to repair many of his broken relationships and transform his social environment. For instance, he claims that “even my mother, who previously wanted nothing to do with me, says I’m completely different now, so she’s accepted me back into the house. We’ve even gone into business together.”

Thus, while ibogaine provided David with the tools to overcome his cravings and face his demons, it was the support of those around him that ultimately helped. Unlike Erika he had somewhere else to go. His final assessment of ibogaine subsequently mirrors Hari's opening sentiments: “Ibogaine gives you that reset that everyone talks about, but it only works if you have a support network which you can integrate into the process. As long as you can do that, you’ll be OK afterwards.”

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My wife and I both kicked our opiate addictions with ibogaine about a year ago. I had a ten year habit and was completely changed by the experience.

I can say without any exaggeration that my experiences with ibogaine were the greatest experiences of my life. It has changed me 100% for the better, given me great insights into my addiction and life in general, and directed me on a new spiritual path that I would have never thought possible just a year ago.

-trainwrecker

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I can cite a source right now, my personal experience. The thing no one seems to get is that ibogaine is one thing - an addiction interrupter - pure and simple. It WILL give you a window to step away from opiates. Some seem to have used it for other things - I can only speak about its effects on the opiate withdrawal process, which somehow it manages to totally circumvent, although you must still experience the sometimes uncomfortable effects of the drug itself.

The way this plays out is like this : If you WANT to be off dope, you can do Ibogaine and walk away : I hated being a junky, and only found myself there through a long and complicated set of circumstances. I love being a cigarette smoker. I took ibogaine and dropped dope like the bad habit it is, a week later i was smoking a pack a day again. I even tried it again for nicotine and the plant itself was like "you like smoking, but it IS totally gonna kill you." I've now compromised to nicorette and occasional cigs. The plant has done wonders for me, you simply have to realize it's true utility. O yeah, point being that if you LOVE dope, I would see very little to stop you from returning. If however, you acquired an opiate habit because of hospitalization or something else of that nature, it could be miraculous.

-cdin

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I was on methadone and a month before treatment switched to a SAO, and even with the sao I still have mild withdrawal from horrible methadone!! Got to Mexico for treatment and haven't looked back! Methadone and suboxone have made my addiction worse! The detox is so much worse than heroin! I detoxed 6 weeks off 2mg of methadone before turning back to the needle. And I did everything humanly possible to stop. Ibogaine is the only thing that worked.

Suboxone is NOT being clean. Ask those people what they would do if they missed 2 days of dose? Lol those "sober" people would be right back out there I put my life on it! Clean means abstinence. Maintenance programs are fine IF you're honest with yourself that you are never going to be clean and that you can know you will be on this med till you die! My methadone clinic had quite a few 70 something patients. And they all can barely walk now because methadone is known to be involved with osteoporosis and osteopenia! Make sure you research it before you let someone who hasn't lived this hell pull the rug over your face! Research ibogaine. It might not be for you, but I pray it is because it affects you mentally and physically. And as science has proven most addicts have mental problems with addiction. That's why ibogaine works! Without mental clarity I received from my trip I would not be clean!

-cherries27

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Ibogaine worked for me. I've been off opiates for over 2 months, and yes, it took away virtually all withdrawal. I had a little break through withdrawal but was given more Ibogaine and it went away. The visions can be hard, they seem to touch the remorse button, but it also offers a lot of compassion and forgiveness as well. I've seen a really nasty, mean junkie turn in to a caring compassionate person. Regardless, if you open your eyes, a bad trip will stop. Ibogaine only claims to be an addiction interrupter. If you don't change the environment that leads to drugs and work some kind of recovery, you will fall back into old pathways. Temporarily, Ibogaine does reset the brain to a pre-addicted state. But you must do the work to create and maintain healthy pathways away from addiction.

-Psychedelic muse

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Ibogaine in the treatment of heroin addiction

When I woke up yesterday morning, I opened the door of my bedroom and walked out to a balcony overlooking the Pacific. I waited to catch a glimpse of the dolphins I had seen the day before and moved on to my meditation ritual. That was the closest I’d get to a mystical experience at the "XYZ treatment facility" in Mexico.

Kim, who'd been upstairs, is a 29-year-old with the face of a teenager who has been addicted to heroin for seven years. Just like Colin, also undergoing the Ibogaine treatment in the same room, Kim suffered an accident and became dependent on prescription painkillers. When doctors wouldn’t prescribe them anymore, she turned to black market pills. She received a settlement from the accident and said she spent the $90,000 on pills. Finally, she turned to the cheaper alternative, heroin.

Just like Colin, Kim said other programs would detox her on Suboxone, a drug used to treat opioid addiction, which also has a high risk for addiction and dependence. She said those programs crowd people into bunk beds and although they teach the twelve steps of Alcoholics Anonymous, she never “even got past the first step.” As other addicts I interviewed told me, you become dependent on the Suboxone and the Methadone and “you can’t really function.”

The founder of "the facility" who says he owes his years of recovery to Ayahuasca, says up to 70 percent of people who have gone through his treatments have stayed sober. According to a 2014 study looking at relapse rates after other residential treatments, 29 percent of people who are opioid dependent remain abstinent after a year.

“By the end of the treatment they are no longer physically dependent on heroin,” he said. “Once the bell has been rung, it’s impossible to un-ring it. They come face to face with parts of themselves they had been unwilling to look at, and because of the journey they are in, there’s nowhere to run. We are integrating pieces of ourselves that are at war with eachother and once those pieces integrate, it is a lot easier to experience and be able to keep on the path.”

-XYZ Treatment facility (real name withheld)

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3 years ago I was hooked on painkillers. I took anything I could find. Methadone, oxy, morphine, I even ordered poppy pods from the Internet and made my own laudanum. I was having fun as long as I had my fix. Then painkillers started drying up because the medical community started getting flak for handing out pills to almost anyone. So heroin came around and that was easier to find than weed for a while. I started doing dope when I couldn't find pain pills. When I didn't have them I got sick.

So my buddy calls me and says he and some LSD. We took 2 hits of potent LSD around 9pm and then around 1am 120mg of MDMA. What I experienced around 2am was the most amazing feeling a human should ever be able to feel. Everything was OK, for the first time in my life I felt things were going to be alright. I was a junkie but that didn't define me, it only defined my choices up to that point, and I saw that could change it anytime I wanted.

I wasn't convinced the feeling would last, but for a long time after I was unbelievably happy. I lost weight, got married, had a baby, got a raise and promotion, started writing music again, and most importantly, I haven't had any pain pills or dope in over two years.

I sincerely believe I was able to overcome my addiction because of the psychedelics. Had I not taken that combo, I'm not so sure I'd even be alive today.

-Buck_Thunderpumper

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Most treatment centers suggest strongly or actually require you to switch to a short-acting opiate before treatment. Apparently ibogaine doesn't work nearly as well for methadone or suboxone. Best is something like codeine but even apparently heroin is much better than methadone. Also I found it works the best to be in withdrawals for a while before taking it.

During the experience the withdrawals are definitely eliminated. In my experience, the trip lasted 3 days before I was able to be fully aware of what was actually going on, and when I came out of it I felt AMAZING, no withdrawals at all. Then due to some stresses of going back to work too early, I ended up taking some opiates twice after that and the withdrawals came back some, and then I took a smaller booster dose 6 days after I took the flood dose. Had a great night, really interesting experience that sort of tied the whole thing together, the next day I had a moment where suddenly I felt like I had woken up from being a crazy person, I felt light withdrawals still for a week but I didn't care, I've never taken an opiate again and my life has changed a lot. I can't be sure whether if I hadn't slipped up right afterwards, I would have had no withdrawals ever again, or if they would have come back a little anyway.

By the way I had switched down from poppy tea (oral opium, also a very long half-life but not as long as methadone) down to kratom beforehand, and then I was in withdrawal for 5 days without any opiates before I took it.

Yeah it's legal in Canada and Mexico, actually pretty much everywhere in the world except the US.

-Xorkoth

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Ibogaine treatment for heroin addiction

In the 60’s a young heroin addict named Howard Lotsof had an interest in psychoactive drugs. A chemist he knew gave him something called Ibogaine—a synthesized drug extracted from the plant “Tabernanthe Iboga”. After taking Ibogaine he had no cravings for heroin anymore. He tested it on some friends, and they had the same reaction.
After the drug wore off they realized they had no cravings for their heroin addictions.

Ibogaine treatment for heroin and opiate addiction is still considered underground today. Few people know about it. Many heroin addicts will tell you the first time they heard about Ibogaine it seemed like pie in the sky. Many who have taken Ibogaine for their addictions have the same story, they went to a clinic outside of the USA, they hoped it would work, and the impact on their lives was even greater than they thought. But the question here isn’t whether Ibogaine should be accepted as the only treatment for addiction, the question is whether it should be viewed as a viable treatment for addiction.

Ibogaine is a Schedule 1 drug in the USA. Since the 1960's, Ibogaine has gone through several studies outside the USA with very little testing being done in the USA. Currently, many addicts seek Ibogaine treatment for heroin addiction in countries like Mexico or Canada—where it is not illegal.

Ibogaine can be used to successfully treat those who are already addicted, especially those that have gone through traditional methods of treatment with little or no success.

Ibogaine is a psychedelic drug. Often users describe their experience with Ibogaine as being in a dream-like state. Ibogaine not only treats physical addiction, but it also treats addiction on other levels, helping many addicts find the deeper reasons for their addiction.

Ibogaine bonds with opioid receptors to reset the brain. This interrupts the addiction and puts the brain back to a pre-addicted state. For the addict, in essence, it significantly reduces, or in most cases eliminates, withdrawals from the addiction.

-Aeden Smith-Ahearn

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Heroin “Control+Alt+Delete”

by Luis G.

Well, I decided to wait a month before writing to you about my ibogaine experience. I did this just to make sure everything is in working order all up in here (my head).

A bit about myself: I’m an artist (painter/photographer). I earned a bachelor’s degree in fine art and art history, I’ve held a steady job for about 6 years, and I’ve been shooting heroin for the past 12 years, everyday, several times a day. I’d been addicted to heroin since the age of 17. I ad fun for about 5 years, then at the age of 23 I decided to try and quit. Soon I became addicted to methadone, not really knowing how much more addictive it was and how much harder it is to kick than heroin. The past 6 years have been spent in utter misery trying to get off opiates. I juggled heroin, methadone, and cocaine all at once.

I tried several detox programs, kicked cold turkey several times, spent a year in jail, lost a few friends, and I overdosed, landing myself in the intensive care unit more than once. I took ibogaine once before as part of a drug study at the University of Miami. The dosage used back then (1996) was much lower than they use today and my experience then was nothing at all like my last experience with it. the first time in 1996 I slept through it; this time I did not sleep for days. Even though the ibogaine did its job at getting me off the methadone with minimal withdrawals, I was really not ready to quit my habit. I was back on heroin in a couple weeks. i just wasn’t ready.

A month ago I felt I was very ready to quit my habit. My body and mind have not been dealing too well with this crazy-rollercoaster-life I have chosen for myself. Within the last 3 years I have probably kicked heroin/methadone about 8 or 9 times, but never fully detoxed, and always feeling quite uncomfortable. Every time I kicked, I seemed to pick up right when the withdrawals were about to end. I just couldn’t bare the last few days of it. All I needed was the right tools, but I couldn’t think of anything.

My girlfriend at the time had been seeing what I was going through, and started doing research to see if there was anything she or I could do. She found out about ibogaine and told me about it. At the time she mentioned it, I had totally forgotten about it, but when I remembered, I immediately decided that this was it. This is exactly what I needed.

In a week I was in San Diego with Dr. Smith*, and having cut down my use considerably, I was pretty damn sick. Dr. Smith showed concern for me, seeing how I was feeling, and dosed me at 5pm on a Monday. I was looking at this as a second chance at regaining my life. And I took it very seriously.

Once I ingested the ibogaine, in 30 minutes it was beginning to work. First my skin went numb, then I felt warmth in my spine and the back of my head. At this point my withdrawals were of no concern anymore, but I had no time to reflect on that because that’s when the spinning started. I had this incredible spinning sensation. I covered my eyes and my ears to try and ease that sensation. but this effort was futile. The spinning only increased in speed. The spinning was so fast that I was very scared all of a sudden. I felt like I was on the brink of losing my mind. Then I realized that I was fighting the trip; anyhow, I could hold it off no longer, so I just “let go”. As soon as I “let go” the spinning seemed to stop completely and I seemed to be everywhere and nowhere at the same time. I had no sense of self, meaning I had no idea where I was, who I was, or what I was doing here… wherever ‘here’ is. Nothing was of importance.

I was conscious, but I was not ‘thinking’ per se, I was simply observing. I wasn’t even aware of the visual hallucinations I was having, which were quite considerable in substance and quantity. I remembered them afterwards. There were lots of plant and animal images, and many indecipherable sounds. I experienced a flying sensation which was quite blissful. Time and space where nowhere to be found and I have never been so “in the moment” as I was at that point, not a second forward or a second backwards… I was here and now. My consciousness of it was a bit shocking. I had not really thought of it (or anything for that matter) until a certain point during the trip, which seemed like forever but at the same time, kind of timeless.

Visual hallucinations kept coming and were very present but at a certain point I seemed to interact with someone else in the trip. There was no physical body to this individual. and my interactions with him where vague. He showed me things, something like pictures, but pictures I’ve seen before. This “person”, or whatever you want to call it, seemed to do something to me. Somehow he took something out of me and replaced it with something else. It was very weird. This replacement seemed to take place in my head/brain. That’s just the way I perceived it. And whatever he put in seemed to fit like a puzzle piece. It felt ancient and more powerful than my own self. Then I had this image/feeling of re-connection to the earth where my head seemed to be planted in the ground. I had a pretty good look at myself with my head in the dark soil and my feet sticking straight up.

Then all of a sudden I was thrust back into my body. I felt the spinning again, and I felt the room around me. It was already morning. and I began to attempt to move. I got up and sat on the couch in my room with great effort. I was quite fatigued, and I felt in awe of how powerful this stuff was. I immediately began to process the experience, and even though I was pretty tired, very edgy and stimulated, uncoordinated, and feeling heavy, I felt quite ok… I felt very human once again and not to mention very happy. If I could have jumped up and down in joy I would have, but that was impossible because I could hardly move. I did not sleep for the next three days. I felt better each day, and by Friday I'd slept and was feeling 110% better.

The best way to describe what I went though I guess, would be to say that it was like hitting CONTROL+ALT+DELETE on a computer. Total restart.

This past Wednesday has been one month since I used heroin. and I have no interest in using ever again. I feel I can really move on now. The ibogaine glow is gone; I can no longer feel it, but I can actually “feel” again. 12 years medicated and desensitized is all behind me now. I can move forward freely, nothing holding me back.

Some significant side notes: I quit smoking cigarettes. Meditation is easy, not difficult like it was before; my mind seemed to always race. My depression is gone. And I’m running again. I haven’t felt this good since I was 16.

So yeah… I’m good now! Thanks for reading this far.

p.s. – I would do it again. I feel that anyone, drug addicted or not, can benefit from this. My mind is much healthier today and ibogaine was a very important catalyst in regaining this health.

* real name withheld

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I beat my addiction with a single large dose of iboga. I walked away from a 6-7 year addiction to opiates/methadone, and was clean for 5 years, until I was injured and put on pain meds. But even then I never went overboard with them, and used iboga again to easily quit.

After that first dose, I quit smoking cigarettes for 3 years. I quit eating sweets, drinking soda, and using all hard/addictive drugs. If I hadn't found iboga, I am sure my life would have gone in a much different direction. It's a miracle, but it does take some effort to maintain your sobriety. Iboga just gets you through the intense physical and mental withdrawal, as well as give you insights into your addiction, but it does not automatically change your lifestyle.

It can make a healthy lifestyle much more desirable, but it's up to you to stick with the program. It kinda sits on your shoulder for a few weeks, and let's you know what is good and not so good for you, but it's up to you to choose the healthy choices.. So, just don't go into iboga expecting a cure all, because it still takes work, however, after 7 clinical detoxes of differing methods, a few cold turkeys, and finally full on methadone addiction, iboga took away all the most difficult withdrawal, and any/all cravings I had for it for weeks, or months.

Then once I felt all better, around 2 months clean, I felt as if I had never used. Only the first week or so was a little difficult, but no tougher than any of the clinical detoxes. Although, when I left to go home, my minor symptoms didn't get a lot worse, like had always happened when I'd left every other detox. It actually got easier each and every day. My recovery was remarkably fast, considering the fact that after my first clinical detox I only stayed clean for 3 weeks, plus the week I was in detox on their drug cocktail, and I had never felt as good as with the iboga only two short weeks later..

After one month without dope, using the traditional method of detox, I still could not sleep, had occasional but fairly regular goosebumps, constant cravings, and sniffles, or runny nose the whole time. After one month from eating the iboga, I felt almost no withdrawal symptoms at all, and I was only lacking a bit of energy. I felt good, and was into a normal eating/sleeping pattern, and was just a little run down or tired, and lacking some motivation.

By the end of the second month, I was out riding my skateboard, playing with the kids, and running around the country to music festivals. So for me, iboga was definitely the key to unlocking my potential, and it showed me that it was possible. Without it, I doubt I'd be here typing to you today. So yes, I actually recovered and I definitely stand by the iboga detox for anyone who has tried many other ways but failed.

-GratefulDad

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I believe Ibogaine is the answer for most opiate addicts. Unfortunately it wouldn't be a money maker for the drug companies since it's an herb and of course they won't touch it unless it makes $$$$. It makes me sick to think that so many people like my son could be helped and no longer take opiates. He went thru the treatment last year (clandestinely) and he's not touched it since and says he has no desire to. I don't know where or how he did this and he will not tell me because he doesn't want to get into trouble (or me either).

I just returned from an ibogaine treatment center, having been treated for my addiction to heroin and cocaine. Before my treatment, I was completely negative, cynical, depressed, cranky
and awful. I hated everything. Attempts at cold turkey were horrendous, and I reached a point of complete desperation.

I was fortunate enough to have a family member who sent me to Mexico to receive treatment with ibogaine. The experience was intense and life-changing.

Ibogaine allows you to see visions when you close your eyes, thus it has been coined as an "oneirophrenic" drug (meaning that it induces a dream-like state). I had many visions that I feel helped me sort out who I am and what I need to do in life to be happy.

I emerged from my trip with absolutely no physical withdrawals from opiates. This, to many people, is the most miraculous aspect of ibogaine.

However, for me, I feel that the drastic change in outlook that took place within me is the most important change. Other rehab programs can get you physically clean, but the psychological root of your addiction still remains, and may take years of therapy to go away, and may never go away.

I have since been offered opiates, and I can honestly say I have absolutely no desire to take them. I just don't see the point anymore. I could go outside and lay in the sun, and that would
feel so much better than shooting up. Ibogaine literally reset my brain, emotions, and body. I can't wait for what life has to offer.

Ibogaine isn't a magic bullet or a cure, but it stops the momentum of your addiction and gives you a moment to step back and evaluate who you are and who you want to become. I feel a great responsibility to spread the word about ibogaine now, since this miracle drug truly saved my life. Ibogaine can free you from your addiction, both physically and mentally.

It's not a long term solution in and of itself, however I feel that ibogaine treated the root of my addiction. If I'd gotten physically clean through a different rehab, I'd still be depressed and alone. Ibogaine is different, though, because it changes your attitude. I truly don't want to use anymore. No cravings.

I think that ibogaine has stopped the momentum of my addiction and given me a chance to step back and evaluate how to proceed in my life. It offers enough time to establish good habits, that when the afterglow has worn off I know my life will be so great I won't ever want to shoot dope again.

-Morphinox

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Ibogaine is a quick way to reset the brain chemistry. People don’t talk about this aspect very much, most people focus on it’s ability to interrupt opiate withdrawal symptoms (which is extremely notable!), however, in very simple terms the brain “reset”, is quite phenomenal. Suboxone directly to ibogaine is ineffective, due to suboxone’s ability to store itself in one’s fat cells. However, I got off suboxone with ibogaine (which is why I am talking so much about it). I switched to a short acting opiate for a duration of time and then went through ibogaine treatment. I came out the other side with what felt like a pre-addicted brain. I was happy. My receptors did not crave opiates. My endorphins worked properly. So I would not say that suboxone has a permanent effect on the brain. The brain is constantly changing. Whether you get off through tapering and let the brain heal itself over the course of a couple of years – or you pick up natural supplements, yoga, etc. to speed up the process – or you do something like ibogaine — your receptors can and will heal! Think positively. Suboxone is a nasty thing, a hard thing to get over, but it is definitely more than possible!

-f33lg00d

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The way ibogaine changed my entire life

I was using opiate-based pain medication for approximately 9 years and I switched back and forth to IV Heroin for 2-3 years 2007/08-2010 before deciding to take both the legal as well as medical risk to order ibogaine online and take it outside of a clinical setting. I read up for weeks on the subject and also had my primary doc send me for multiple heart testing. I told him I needed the testing due to my family history. I somehow managed to get funding together via saving, selling possessions and also 3 very generous donations from online friends and made
my purchase. A month later my order had arrived.

Prior to my ingestion of Iboga/Ibogaine I'd been taking daily doses of Harmala extracts, as I dosed ayahuasca brewed from Mimosa daily for the 2 weeks prior to my Ibogaine experience. I did not take any Harmala the day I started dosing Ibogaine or any days following but by having them already build a level up in my system I was able to extend my amount of iboga and ibogaine considerably as I was extremely sensitive to it due to the harmal namely harmine's effects. But mixing Iboga and/or Ibogaine with MAOI's even Harmalas of the RIMA class can potentially be fatal. Harmalas can still have an effect the day after taking them or for days if they've already built up in your system. I don't know how long exactly but this was taken into consideration in regards to safety.

I waited as long as I could after my last dose of opiates wore off to make sure they were out of my system as mixing the 2 substances can be deadly, and I made sure my friend Peter came over to act as a sober sitter in case an emergency should arise. I sat at my computer talking in a chat room related to hallucinogenics to help put my head in the right place.

Although I only took a mild flood dose the first day I continually dosed on both the TA and Hcl for the first 4 days until I had run out and continued to take small doses of the root bark 2 grams at most for the following week and a half. In all, over a 9 day period: 4 grams of TA, 2 grams of HCL, and 20 grams of rootbark.

After an hour I felt the first effects coming on which were primarily ataxia better known as The Shakes and looked to my left and my first visualization manifested on my bedroom wall. A giant realistic 3D DNA double Helix even tho everything else looked absolutely normal. The chat-room people advised I go lay down for it so I left my computer and moved to my bed. While looking at the ceiling I next noticed that the sunlight coming in my room was literally pulsing on the ceiling and that the music I was listening to had begun to sound much faster than it normally would. I had absolutely no anxiety at this point and am the type of person who used to have insane panic attacks from psychedelics and even smoking too much pot but this was very relaxing as long as I didn't try to move.

I closed my eyes and strangely I found that I could actually see my room still and even tested this by putting a german down feather comforter over my head began moving my hand in front of my covered and closed eyes and to my amazement could see my hand fingers and arm clearly but differently as I could only see in red, and it was like being in a very very dimly lit room. At this point I noticed that the withdrawal I had started to experience before taking the ibogaine had vanished completely but I felt severely depressed like I was coming off of some kind of stimulant (this was the ibogaine cleaning out and resetting the affected dopaminergic receptor sites) used for ADHD medication and was very anti-social and not talkative with Peter. This passed after some time and suddenly it felt as if I had taken some kind of Dopamine elevating medication like what is used for ADHD. Basically it was like experiencing such a type of drug's effects literally backwards. Days even 2 months later I still felt emotionally amazing and never experienced any sort of crash as one would by taking medication to feel that way and to this day still 3 years later I may not feel it to such a heavy degree but I wake up every day quite happy and functioning.

The final hallucinogenic effect I will mention was the following. I turned my head to my left with my eyes closed and my jaw dropped as I saw my recently deceased Friend/Brother/Mentor standing right next to me as clear as anything I see this very moment, yet he did have a sort of glow around him with his arms crossed relaxed. When I looked at him he turned his head to me and although I couldn't hear a single word he said audibly, I easily read his lips which stated 'NOW DO YOU SEE!?' I'm still interpreting what that could have meant years later. The hallucinogenic effects in total lasted roughly 18 hours and I wasn't able to sleep for 3 days which really wasn't that bad considering the effects of the ibogaine had left me very energetic and overall in an extremely positive mood the ibogaine had left me very energetic and overall in an extremely positive mood

Following the experience, this is what I noted.

During the experience I had literally no short term memory function as Ibogaine simulates REM sleep while keeping you wide awake essentially dreaming with eyes open but due to the nature of REM sleep short term memory is deactivated as the body has no real use for it during such a time even when simulated by ibogaine. My cravings or desire to take any drugs whatsoever even cigarettes had quite literally disappeared. I went grocery shopping and my body would literally not allow me to buy any crap food. To this day my diet has been changed dramatically due to these events and I feel MUCH healthier overall.

My depression, anxiety, periodic suicidal and self destructive/harming ideas and emotions had disappeared entirely, and to this day still remains absent. My articulation of language and cognitive understanding of anything I studied in terms of scholarly topics improved dramatically. I started stretching and exercising.

When I was 27 I was diagnosed with some form of high-functioning Autism that basically affects social functioning more than anything, it had calmed down dramatically although it has returned to some degree but no real complaints. I went from years of living like a complete and unorganized slob bordering on being a hoarder and since, my house is kept at the very minimum uncluttered and clean as well as being organized more than ever.

I experienced no acute nor post acute withdrawal (PAW's) symptoms and basically my life in general has been far more relaxing as well as enjoyable ever since.

Don't get me wrong Ibogaine is not nor should it be viewed as a magic bullet. 3-6 months after my experience with it I had an abscessed tooth and had no choice but to take Vicodin for it. After a few days I came to find out that I was once again addicted to opiates at least on a physically dependent level so until I could afford more Ibogaine and since then I have been using Loperamide Hcl as an over the counter methadone-type maintenance therapy with the primary difference being that Immodium/Loperamide does not offer any sort of high but when I take in high doses it does attach to opiate receptor sites along the G.I. tract causing the withdrawal symptoms to be postponed until it wears off. I did this for roughly a year and a half-2 years while saving up for a second dose of ibogaine thinking since it worked for heroin and other opiates it should work for immodium/loperamide (unfortunately taking high doses of immodium/loperamide for a prolonged period causes its own withdrawal similar in effect as well as in length to methadone and plainly speaking is absolute hell).

Unfortunately I found out very quickly that Ibogaine does not work for Loperamide as the moment it wore off the withdrawal from the Loperamide kicked in and I was quite literally on the floor screaming turning purple trying to force my insides out of both ends. So since then I've been ever so slowly tapering down my Loperamide dose and am hoping I can get past this before it causes any serious complications in my intestines or colon as its primary intended effect is to paralyze the muscles much in the same manner as how pain killers cause constipation.

Aside from that I have absolutely no regrets and I am a very firm supporter of this medication. I still have no cravings and my psychiatrist is so astounded by the massive overall change in my persona that he has decided travel to where Ibogaine can be found as it apparently originates near his own country of Chad in Africa.

-MindAsh

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Ibogaine saved my life

It’s been 9 months since I received ibogaine treatment, and every day I am so thankful for whatever it was inside me that told me it wasn’t my time to go. This substance literally changed
my life, brought me back to life, gave me the life that somehow I knew I deserved, but couldn’t ever find in my dope induced mind.

I think the best part of Ibogaine was how well it worked to get rid of all my withdrawal symptoms because the sickness I felt every time I came down was so intense that I would rather stay
on smack the rest of my life than go through that. I feel that this is like the number one thing that kept me using. I couldn’t handle being sick. The high had really gone away years ago, and
at the end it was like I was just taking heroin to stay alive.

Ibogaine literally changed all of this. After treatment was over, even though I was still a little groggy, the first thing I was aware of is that I had no more physical cravings. The seven days I spent at Ibogaine University completely took this away. It was the most amazing feeling not to feel that sickness anymore. My mind was definitely clearer, of course, the things I uncovered
and released were amazing, but it was such a huge relief not to feel that I needed to keep choosing to stick needles in my arms to keep me from being so sick that I would rather die.

If it wasn’t for ibogaine I would be dead. If not from an accidental overdose, it would have been an intentional one. This was my plan. Looking back at this, I can’t even believe that was me. The person I have become since treatment is but a shadow of what I had become. My life is full of meaning, I have repaired relationships that were damaged when I was using, and I have learned to let go of that which no longer serves my new life. It is open, it is full, and it is all because ibogaine helped me choose life.

-selfie1099

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I had ibogaine treatment and the results were miraculous. Imagine doing the 12 steps + ten years of intense one-on-one therapy + the same on self esteem and improvement, and packing
that into a 24-hour period. I even looked younger after my treatment. For the first time in my life I could say "I love you" to my reflection... And I meant it.

-Melissa Hope Benitez

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I used ibogaine twice, a week apart, to help me conquer my opiate addiction. It worked like nothing else ever did. Opiates were a ball and chain for me for 15 years, and I am happy to say
that because of Ibogaine, it's all in the past.

-TheStr8OmarLittle

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Ibogaine helped me kick my opioid addiction overnight

By Juliana Mulligan

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My Ibogaine Experience

By David Graham Scott

This is an account of my experiences of the drug ibogaine. At the time I was a long-term user of methadone linctus. I found it impossible to deal with the hellish withdrawal symptoms experienced in trying to come off methadone. I hoped that ibogaine might break my habit once and for all.

On a Thursday night I took a test dose of ibogaine hydrochloride. Edward (my guide) said it was roughly 200mg. After 35-40 mins I could feel the drug start to take effect. I looked at
my hand and it seemed so primitive, perhaps Neanderthal. It felt like some form of anesthesia and a distortion of sound and vision were noticed. What I do remember though was an intense connection to the old photographs and toys I’d brought (I’d thought a connection with my childhood would be healing). It was really a very emotional experience but I was apprehensive as regards taking the full dose the next day. I felt taking 7 or 8 times this dose could kill me but, according to my body weight, that’s what it was going to take to end my methadone addiction.

I took the ibogaine at 10:20am on the Friday. I took four capsules to begin with. The fifth I’d take later. After about 40 mins I felt a heavy emotional trauma come over me. I grew very apprehensive re the dose and feared that I may die. Edward reassured me. I lay down to let the ibogaine work. Light and sound were being affected. The yellow painted wall opposite me glowed with a burning intensity. I knew that this was going to be a strong experience. The noise of the underground trains became amplified into the sound of a thousand Nazi bombers. I
felt the approach of something huge, something menacing perhaps. I called out Bwiti 3 times. The words appeared in my head in large green slimy letters.

The first visions that I experienced when closing my eyes were yellow grids stretching into the empty darkness of space. These stellar grids then took me into another dark and ominous landscape with a particularly eerie resonance. A strange sound permeated the atmosphere…it was like a thousand million aircraft drifting overhead. The hum or resonance permeated the whole experience and I understood this to be an essential component of existence, a binding force that was always there but the ibogaine helped me recognize it. I then felt I was on board a strange spacecraft viewing the landscape before me. Small portraits drifted by of myself as a child. They stopped when I contracted a hellish skin condition at age 17.

This was where my development was seriously affected and I journeyed into heavy depression and low self-esteem. Next a figure that had haunted me for years appeared. It was the Chinese torture victim from Georges Bataille’s Tears of Eros. This photograph of a young man being systematically sliced to pieces was the most disturbing image I’d ever seen. The text mentioned that a large dose of opium had been administered to the victim prior to the torture. A curiously beatified expression was on the guy’s face. In my trance state the figure flew towards me in an inset box. He was glowing silver, completely transcended from the torture he was undergoing. The beauty outweighed the horror. I realized then that I too had been a torture victim. I had been torturing myself with opiate addiction.

These are the key moments of the experience. There’s a lot of it that I can’t recall. The intensity was often overwhelming and it was impossible to take on board all of the information. Ataxia hit me heavily and I found it impossible to walk without help. Jagged lines appeared around lights and the strange resonance permeated my head for a long time after the visions ended.

I was a little sick and went to bed. I didn’t feel great but it wasn’t withdrawal at least. I felt I was being cured of my addiction.

It took me about 3 days to start walking properly again. I did have residual withdrawal symptoms but it was nothing I couldn’t handle. I’d say it cleared 85% of the rattling. There was no way I’d feel this good if I’d tried to come straight off methadone. I didn’t have much strength over the following 2 weeks but it’s gradually coming back. It’s now the 15th day since I used to take methadone and I feel really good. Ibogaine has ended my addiction. The anguish of depression has been vanquished … I am whole again!”

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Ibogaine for cocaine addiction

Since the 1960s a disparate group of scientists and former drug addicts have been advocating a radical treatment for addiction - a hallucinogen called ibogaine, derived from an African plant, that in some cases seems to obliterate withdrawal symptoms from heroin, cocaine and alcohol.

For nearly 15 years, Thillen Naidoo's life was ruled by crack cocaine. Growing up in Chatsworth, a township on the outskirts of Durban in South Africa, he was surrounded by drugs.

After a troubled childhood and the death of his father, he turned to cocaine.

Though he held down a job as a carpenter and could go for days or even weeks without a hit, his wild drug binges often ended in arguments with his wife Saloshna and sometimes even physical abuse.

By the time he met Dr Anwar Jeewa at the Minds Alive Rehab Centre in Chatsworth, Naidoo had tried to quit several times and failed. "Those were dark, dark days," he says.

Jeewa offered a radical solution, a hallucinogenic drug used in tribal ceremonies in central Africa that would obliterate his cravings.

But Naidoo was anxious. "I didn't know what this ibogaine thing was," he says. "I never expected it to work."

After several medical tests he was given the pill.

A few hours later he lay in bed, watching flying fish swarm above his head. He felt the room move around him and a constant buzz rang in his ears. Scenes from his childhood flashed up briefly before his eyes and each time someone approached to check he was OK he felt a rush of fear.

The hallucinogenic effect wore off overnight but for the next few days Thillen was in a haze. When he returned home a week later, he realised he no longer craved cocaine. Six months later, he is still clean.

He attends a therapy group two days a week, where he learns the skills necessary to maintain a lifestyle without drugs.

"My mind has shifted now from what I used to be," he says. "I can look back at my childhood and deal with those issues without sobbing and feeling sorry for myself."

Jeewa estimates he has treated around 1,000 people with ibogaine but it remains largely unacknowledged by the medical mainstream.

Clinicians like Dr. Jeewa would like to see the drug licensed but he says people need to understand its limits.

"Once you have a patient that is drug free and whose brain is back to its full potential then you can help them change their lifestyle," says Jeewa.

"Ibogaine helps to interrupt addiction but it's not a cure or a magic bullet," he says. "It has to be taken in the right setting and treatment has to be followed up with psychosocial care."

-Stephanie Hegarty

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My experience with ibogaine

For approximately the past 5 years I was addicted to opiates. It began with percocet, progressed quickly into oxycontin and then when supply ran low I turned to opium tea. As I write this, only four days ago I was drinking two large, dark glasses of opium tea per day. I was pretty much opiated-out most of the time from a series of depression issues ranging from the suicide of an ex-girlfriend to horrible job situation to the love of my life cheating on me. After prices for poppy pods went sky high, I simply could not afford my addiction any longer and I searched for what my options were. Tapering off the tea didn't seem possible and it would take months of will power. There was no way I was going to simply turn to methadone for the rest of my life and going cold turkey, well, if you have ever experienced the effects of withdrawal from opiates, you know the hell that can be and it would probably last a couple weeks or more.

I finally found several great documentaries about Ibogaine, the African root that supposedly could cure even veteran heroin addicts in a couple of days. I watched a video called 'Rite of Passage', which I highly recommend, and that gave a lot of information on how to proceed. Now, there are clinics in Canada, Mexico and Europe who will administer this drug to people, but
the price was thousands of dollars that I didn't have. I found a company who was willing to ship some Iboga capsules (325mg each) along with a gram of Ibogaine. So, I did the research and decided to venture into the experience on my own. From what I was told, I should take at least 2.5 grams of Ibogaine for my weight and type of addiction. I figured that, since I was doing this alone, I would take a fraction of that amount, and I am glad I did. The experience was MUCH more aggressive than I imagined or what really was explained in the available information. I feel that, had I taken the full dose, I may have been hospitalized. Maybe I'm wrong, but that's how it felt.

My last full dose of opium tea was taken at 11pm on a Wednesday. I had a full nights rest, then I started the treatment around 2pm on Thursday, right around the time I would be looking for another dose. I did not eat that day, I was not supposed to as I would very possibly be throwing it up anyway. You are supposed to wait at least 12 hours since your last shot of opiate to start the Ibogaine. I started with what is called a 'test' dose, which was 4 325mg capsules of Iboga (the raw root powder, KNOW the difference! Iboga is the pure root powder that comes
from the root, Ibogaine is the synthesized extract which is several times more powerful than just Iboga). I waited about 40 minutes after I took the test dose to make sure I had no adverse reactions. I felt weird, but good. In fact, it seemed as if the capsules alone stopped my craving for opium in a matter of minutes. So then I went ahead and took about 3/4ths of a gram of the Ibogaine (I took the powder and put it in a couple of vegetable capsules, which I simply swallowed). I laid down in my bed (you MUST be laying down through this process), put on my .mp3 player, which I loaded with soft, new age music and tried to relax. I did find that the music helped me not panic.

My stomach was empty so the effects kicked in within maybe 10 minutes or less. The first effect I felt was a high, intense buzzing throughout my body. Sort of freaked me out, but I just breathed and let the drug do its thing. A few moments after that, the hallucinogen part kicked in. I've done LSD, Mushrooms, Mescaline, Salvia and DMT and this was nothing like anything
I've experienced. The weird part was, my mind was actually fairly clear throughout the hallucinations. Oddly enough, I could have held a coherent conversation with someone throughout the process if I had to. The patterns behind my closed eyes were so intense, I often had a hard time telling if my eyes were opened or closed. But the most disconcerting parts were:

1. My energy absolutely fell out of my body within 20 minutes of taking the last dose. I could hardly lift my head or move and that scared me because I was alone. I had no idea it would be that powerful.

2. I was in such a total state of dizziness, that it felt as if I had downed a liter of vodka and a few hits of acid. If I turned my head just a little, the whole room spun and swam. I wish I had
put an eye mask over my eyes to avoid this.

After maybe 90 minutes, I threw up twice. I was prepared with a bucket, so this really didn't bother me. In fact, I felt much better after I puked. The strong hallucinations only lasted two hours at the most. Then the Ibogaine went to work on stripping down my body and blocking the opiate receptors. I was still slightly tripping, but that didn't bother me anymore. This 'stripping' lasted about the next 20 hours and it was possibly the most awful thing I've ever had the discomfort of experiencing. It was akin to being scraped head to toe from the inside, out. All I could do was writhe in pain in my bed and take it. After a few hours of that, I absolutely HAD to get some water in me and I had not brought any into my room. It took every last bit of my energy to crawl on my hands and knees down the hallway to the kitchen and pour water for myself. Each subtle movement I made felt like it would turn my stomach. I dry heaved twice just trying to crawl back to my bed. So, if you are insane enough to do something like this alone, which I DO NOT recommend, make sure you have everything you may want in arm's reach of your bed.

Now, I had a few friends offer to babysit me while I did this and I turned them down. I was afraid they would panic or make me even more nervous as I embarked on what I imagined would
be a very private journey. I now wish I would have had someone there just to retrieve things for me. There really would not have been much else they could have done for me.

By around 6 the next morning, Friday, I was still chained to my bed, but I felt the pain slowly, slowly subsiding. For a long while, I felt like the Ibogaine wasn't working and I panicked that I needed more opium tea. Apparently, this is common to think its not working right at first. My suggestion is to have faith, it will work and just let the process happen. It WILL go away and your energy WILL return to you quicker than you realize. The way I felt while it was cleaning my system was that I would be stuck in bed for days, maybe a week, from this drug, but I was wrong. By eleven the next morning (Friday still), I forced myself to stand up and get more water and I was amazed that, once I stood up, I actually felt much better. My body was already beginning
to stabilize. Slowly, throughout the day, my energy came back and my stomach began feeling a little better. I was exhausted but sleep was still impossible. The drug acted almost like a type
of speed. I slowly began putting basic juices and simple cereals into my system. That made me feel better, but it was irritating that I could not sleep. This lasted a few days until I managed to start sneaking in a few hours here and there. The dizziness slowly subsided and I was able to move freely about the house by Friday night. My mind was on overdrive, though. I felt like my brain was processing all sorts of data at an incredible speed. It didn't really bother me, but again, it made sleep impossible.

By Saturday, I was convinced that it had worked wonders. I had almost no signs of detox and there was very little pain. My whole body felt raw but it wasn't anything close to the horrible detox withdrawals. I now write this report on Sunday since my detox on Thursday. I still have not slept a full night, but I feel normal. I'm clean of opiates, I can feel it. The only issue I'm still dealing with now is the experience of having all of my nerves suddenly be operating at full capacity at the same time. Its not painful, per say, but it is a little freaky. I feel like my nerves are jumping out of my skin sometimes, but again, I have nothing to complain about compared to where I would be right now if I had just gone 'cold turkey'.

Right now, I can't even imagine putting another drug into my system. It's too raw. It feels like I'm in a brand new body. So, overall, despite the harrowing experience, I am so glad I did this treatment. I DO NOT recommend doing what I did and going it alone, selecting your own dosage. Do your homework. But, if you do choose to go down this path, just keep in mind while the Ibogaine is in full effect that IT WILL PASS and you will be a new person in no time. It was scary, but absolutely worth the journey. I feel like I have been given a second chance to make better choices and my cravings for opiates are zero right now. Let's work to spread the word of this alternative detox option and get the US government to declassify this as a schedule one drug. Peace.

New studies confirm the effectiveness of ibogaine in stopping opioid addiction

By Dylan Charles
June 8, 2017

The opioid crisis in America has reached epidemic levels and overdose deaths continue to rise. While the destructive effects of heroin and pharmaceutical opioids ravage communities
and destroy families, the federal government is considering harsh new mandatory sentences for opioid crimes, demonstrating a heart-breaking disconnect from reality when it comes to disrupting dependence on these insanely addictive and deadly drugs.

“In 2015, more that 52,000 people in the U.S. died from drug overdoses, or about 144 each day, with the majority of those deaths opioid-related. Nationwide, fatal opioid overdoses increased 652 percent from 2000 to 2015, according to CDC statistics, and every indication is that the problem has grown worse in 2016.”

Opioids in the U.S. are far more deadly than terrorism and even firearms, yet because they fall into the uncomfortable category of addiction and are primarily the result of the legal pharmaceutical industry, the problem is largely ignored by mainstream media, and the government authorized solutions don’t help.

Remarkably, there is a natural medicine for treating opioid addiction which immediately stops withdrawals and detoxes opioids from the body, and also produces a deep spiritual experience that helps an addict to stay sober by showing them the source and reason for their addictive behavior and inspiring them to remain clean.

Extracted from the iboga plant, which is native to the equatorial rainforests of West Africa, ibogaine is psychoactive indole alkaloid that has been known for decades to interrupt opioid addiction. Two recent observational studies have now added to the growing body of evidence in support of ibogaine as perhaps the most effective medicinal treatment known.

“Ibogaine is a psychoactive compound usually extracted from the West African Tabernanthe iboga plant. In animals, a single dose of ibogaine decreases signs of opioid withdrawal and produces sustained reductions in the self-administration of heroin, morphine, cocaine, nicotine and alcohol. Ibogaine is illegal in the U.S., and legal but unregulated in Canada and Mexico. New Zealand, South Africa, and Brazil authorize the use of ibogaine by licensed medical practitioners. While its mechanism of action is not yet fully understood, it differs from that of standard opioid agonist treatments such as methadone and buprenorphine which maintain dependence, and thus may show promise as an innovative pharmacotherapy for opioid addiction.

The authors of the studies conclude that given the potential demonstrated by ibogaine’s substantive treatment effect in opioid detoxification, its novel (though not yet fully understood) pharmacological mechanism of action, and its clinical effect in opioid-dependent subjects who have not satisfactorily responded to other treatments, ibogaine has promise for future research and development as a novel pharmacotherapy for opioid addiction.”

The Mexico study, published on May 25, showed that ibogaine administration was associated with substantive effects on opioid withdrawal symptoms and drug use in subjects for whom other treatments had been unsuccessful. 12 out of 30 participants reported 75% reductions in their drug use 30 days following treatment, and 33% reported no opioid use three months later.

The New Zealand study, published on April 12, showed that a single ibogaine treatment could reduce opioid withdrawal symptoms and achieve either cessation from opioids or sustained, reduced use for up to 12 months following treatment. The results indicate that ibogaine may have a significant pharmacological effect on opiate withdrawal. All participants in the study described their ibogaine experience in positive terms.”

Is Ibogaine Treatment Safe?

Ibogaine is listed as a schedule I drug by the DEA, which implies that the drug has no medicinal value, however, under properly medically supervised conditions, ibogaine is extremely effective, as further confirmed by these two studies. It is important to note that the drug war ban on ibogaine creates a climate in which treatment with the mysterious alkaloid takes place outside of the proper care of qualified physicians, and that when dealing with opioid addicts ibogaine can indeed be dangerous.

In the New Zealand study one of the participants died while undergoing treatment, and an investigation found that the death was likely related to the ingestion of ibogaine, however, it was also attributed to a failure to properly care for the patient.

It needs to be said that there is no magic pill for addiction, as noted by opioid survivor Jeff Cook.

“Iboga is not a magic pill. Iboga is an amazing tool that can free you from the deepest depths of addiction. The spirit of Iboga will teach you everything you need to learn to stay clean, but one must follow these lessons to stay on the right path. Iboga does not change your free will, what Iboga does, is show you the truth. The truth you need to make peace in order to live a happy, drug free life.”

Yet, given the deadly nature of the epidemic at hand and the huge and rising numbers of deaths each year, it is past time to give alternative treatments their due and make them available for those who are at risk of succumbing to opioids.

I have personally been through the opiate withdrawal process about 6 times. It simply never worked until now, and here's why:

In my recent drug addict process, I found Adderall. (STOP. Do NOT PRE-JUDGE.) The word 'Adderall' to most people instantly turns to 'drug seeking' - which is widely spread, and abused, which is preventing people like me with actual ADHD who need this medication to control, uncontrollable actions within our selves.

Before I continue, I want everyone to know I have been confirmed moderate to severe ADHD, by both a psychotherapist and MD therapist. I have been on 30 MG XR Adderall for the past few days and it has simply been a blessing - I finally have control of my life for the first time - I ever have.

I am 29 years old, with 9 years of drug addiction behavior. I developed ADHD at the age of 14, and managed to go 6 years before discovering the impulsive instant gratification of drugs.

I have tried EVERY drug know to man, including >>>>>>, meth, X, molly, weed, fake weed - everything with the exception of LSD and Kratom (which is a drug, not medication.)

After going to both the psychotherapist and therapist, I have finally found what was the cause of all my drug addiction. I know many of you may think this is just justification for use of more drugs, when it is not. The only drug I now take (and this was overnight ending) is Adderall.

I was using every drug known, in an attempt to calm myself down, from the uncontrollable affect of ADHD within me. My ADHD caused me to discover drugs, and if you know anything about ADHD - the symptoms and effects are simply uncontrollable. I CANNOT stress this enough. With ADHD - willpower doesn't mean a damn thing, because your brain simply cannot control yourself when your symptoms are acting up. You can live with ADHD, without medication, however I personally need a short to long term plan of being on Adderall 6-12 months so I can develop personal habits, and positive cycles of reinforcement, that allow you to ween off the medication and control it yourself.

It is possible with help to control this disorder without medication, but for most recently diagnosed, medication plays a vital roll.

Notice how I call it medication, not a drug. Medications and Drugs are chemically the same, the only difference is if you are USING for properly, as directed, as prescribed - not ABUSING for a high.

I am finally one of those people. Please don't misunderstand this post, as I am not a doctor, and never will be.

I am simply trying to say to those out there that have tried and failed to get off opiates - and specifically suboxone (for me, this is the first time in ever I have gone 5 days without suboxone)

PLEASE don't misunderstand this post as "Adderall is a quick fix for opiate withdrawals" - IT IS NOT. It may cover withdrawals, but you will just be in the same place without proper diagnoses.

Adderall without therapy and properly taken as prescribed - is totally an extremely abusive and addictive drug.

That however does not mean it cannot be used as a proper medication, hence why it is a schedule 2 narcotic.

This entire post, is hopefully to help those who are like me, who have gone years never understanding why they cannot get off opiates no matter how hard they try - because its not a matter of willpower. For some of us, I believe it's the uncontrollable nature of ADHD.

I am not saying everyone addicted to opiates has ADHD - however I will say if you have tried to get off opiates more than a few times - please look into ADHD.

My ADHD caused me to impulsively get into drugs, and once I started the cycle of hard drugs, it was impossible to break without finding the cause - you MUST find the cause why you are using, and YOU CANNOT DO IT ALONE.

My life has turned for the better twice - once when I went to outpatient treatment that helped me discover the tools to defeat drugs, but until I discovered the ADHD within my self - I had no chance of ever beating opiates personally.

Keep in mind I was recently diagnosed last week, and started medication 5 days ago. However that day, I went from the day before taking 1mg suboxone to 30mg XRs, and YES both my doctor/therapist and my pyschotherapist know about it.

All I am trying to say, is that I personally know now, that my ADHD caused the entire cycle. It was something I had no control over, and now with proper help, I am finally moving on. ADHD caused my anxiety and depression which led me to the horrible cycle of addiction.

I am now getting help, proper medication and therapy and I have never been happier in my entire life.

Just something to consider if you have tried and failed many times to break the cycle of opiates. Your opiate addiction may be due to ADHD - as ADHD is estimated to be in around 20% of the adult population.

Maria Michaelides, 36, thought there was no way out. The Kitchener, Ontario woman started taking Percocet for chronic pain. At first, she used the medication as prescribed. At the time, Michaelides was caught in an abusive relationship, and she began to see Percocet as an escape. Before long, she found herself buying pills from street dealers. She dabbled in morphine and Oxycontin — anything that would prevent withdrawal symptoms such as vomiting, pain and devastating depression. "I knew I had a problem," she said. "I didn't know what to do."

Michaelides is among a number many who have turned to psychotropic plants in an effort to stop using opiates when they feel conventional treatments, such as the opiate-replacement drugs methadone and suboxone, aren't working. Advocates say the plants, called entheogens on account of their mind-altering effects, induce a reflective mental state that allows users to confront the psychological roots of their addictions.

Iboga, a shrub found in West Africa, is one of the plants being used to supplement conventional addiction medicine. Ibogaine, the active chemical compound isolated from the dried root bark of iboga, is "profoundly effective" at interrupting the intense withdrawal, interrupting the intense withdrawal symptoms experienced by people dependent on opiates. It is reported to induce dream like states and flashbacks to childhood memories that can help a person resolve trauma.

When Michaelides realized she needed help with her addiction, she went to a doctor for methadone, but that caused lethargy and weight gain. She was unable to come off the synthetic opioid, either. "I tried to stop and just couldn't handle the withdrawals. The depression was so severe." Michaelides turned to black-market prescription opiates once again — and eventually to heroin. After smoking heroin for three months, Michaelides was ready for another shot at treatment.

This time she visited a private ibogaine-treatment centre in Vancouver. Michaelides paid $8,000 for her 10-day retreat in B.C. "I had to go to my parents to ask them for the money," she said. "I was very lucky that they agreed to pay for it because it saved my life."

Thanks to a single dose of ibogaine, she says, she is no longer dependent on opiates.

New studies confirm the effectiveness of ibogaine in stopping opioid addiction

By Dylan Charles
June 8, 2017

The opioid crisis in America has reached epidemic levels and overdose deaths continue to rise. While the destructive effects of heroin and opioids ravage communities and destroy families, the federal government is considering harsh new mandatory sentences for opioid crimes, demonstrating a heart-breaking disconnect from reality when it comes to disrupting dependence on these insanely addictive and deadly drugs.

“In 2015, more that 52,000 people in the U.S. died from drug overdoses. The majority of those deaths were opioid-related. Nationwide, fatal opioid overdoses increased 652 percent from 2000 to 2015, according to CDC statistics, and every indication is that the problem has grown worse in 2016.”

Opioids in the U.S. are far more deadly than terrorism and even firearms, yet because they fall into the uncomfortable category of addiction and are primarily the result of the legal pharmaceutical industry, the problem is largely ignored by mainstream media, and the government authorized solutions don’t help.

Remarkably, there is a natural medicine for treating opioid addiction which immediately stops withdrawals and detoxes opioids from the body, and also produces a deep spiritual experience that helps an addict to stay sober by showing them the source and reason for their addictive behavior and inspiring them to remain clean.

Extracted from the iboga plant, which is native to the equatorial rainforests of West Africa, ibogaine is psychoactive indole alkaloid that has been known for decades to interrupt opioid addiction. Two recent observational studies have now added to the growing body of evidence in support of ibogaine as perhaps the most effective medicinal treatment known.

“Ibogaine is a psychoactive compound usually extracted from the West African Tabernanthe iboga plant. In animals, a single dose of ibogaine decreases opioid withdrawal and produces sustained reductions in the self-administration of heroin, morphine, cocaine, nicotine and alcohol. Ibogaine is illegal in the U.S., and legal but unregulated in Canada and Mexico."

New Zealand, South Africa, and Brazil currently authorize the use of ibogaine by licensed medical practitioners. While its mechanism is not yet fully understood, it differs from standard opioid agonist treatments such as methadone and buprenorphine which maintain dependence, and thus may show promise as an innovative pharmacotherapy for opioid addiction.

The authors of the studies conclude that given the potential demonstrated by ibogaine’s substantive treatment effect in opioid detoxification, its novel (though not yet fully understood) pharmacological mechanism, and its clinical effect in opioid-dependent subjects who have not satisfactorily responded to other treatments, ibogaine has promise for future research and development as a novel pharmacotherapy for opioid addiction.”

The Mexico study showed that ibogaine administration was associated with substantive effects on opioid withdrawal symptoms and drug use in subjects for whom other treatments had been unsuccessful. 12 out of 30 participants reported 75% reductions in their drug use 30 days following treatment, and 33% reported no opioid use three months later.

The New Zealand study, published on April 12, showed that a single ibogaine treatment could reduce opioid withdrawal symptoms and achieve either cessation from opioids or sustained, reduced use for up to 12 months following treatment. The results indicate that ibogaine may have a significant pharmacological effect on opiate withdrawal. All participants in the study described their ibogaine experience in positive terms.”

Is Ibogaine Treatment Safe?

Ibogaine is listed as a schedule I drug, which implies that the drug has no medicinal value, however, under properly medically supervised conditions, ibogaine is extremely effective, as further confirmed by these two studies. It is important to note that the drug war ban on ibogaine creates a climate in which treatment with the mysterious alkaloid takes place outside of the proper care of qualified physicians, and that when dealing with opioid addicts ibogaine can indeed be dangerous.

In the New Zealand study one of the participants died while undergoing treatment, and an investigation found that the death was likely related to the ingestion of ibogaine, however, it was also attributed to a failure to properly care for the patient.

It needs to be said that there is no magic pill for addiction, as noted by opioid survivor Jeff Cook.

“Iboga is not a magic pill. Iboga is an amazing tool that can free you from the deepest depths of addiction. The spirit of Iboga will teach you everything you need to learn to stay clean, but one must follow these lessons to stay on the right path. Iboga does not change your free will, what Iboga does, is show you the truth. The truth you need to make peace in order to live a happy, drug free life.”

Yet, given the deadly nature of the epidemic at hand and the huge and rising numbers of deaths each year, it is past time to give alternative treatments their due and make them available for those who are at risk of succumbing to opioids.

Maria Michaelides, 36, thought there was no way out. The Kitchener, Ontario woman started taking Percocet for chronic pain. At first, she used the medication as prescribed. At the time, Michaelides was caught in an abusive relationship, and she began to see Percocet as an escape. Before long, she found herself buying pills from street dealers. She dabbled in morphine and Oxycontin — anything that would prevent withdrawal symptoms such as vomiting, pain and devastating depression. "I knew I had a problem," she said. "I didn't know what to do."

Michaelides is among a number many who have turned to psychotropic plants in an effort to stop using opiates when they feel conventional treatments, such as the opiate-replacement drugs methadone and suboxone, aren't working. Advocates say the plants, called entheogens on account of their mind-altering effects, induce a reflective mental state that allows users to confront the psychological roots of their addictions.

Iboga, a shrub found in West Africa, is one of the plants being used to supplement conventional addiction medicine. Ibogaine, the active chemical compound isolated from the dried root bark of iboga, is "profoundly effective" at interrupting the intense withdrawal, interrupting the intense withdrawal symptoms experienced by people dependent on opiates. It is reported to induce dream like states and flashbacks to childhood memories that can help a person resolve trauma.

When Michaelides realized she needed help with her addiction, she went to a doctor for methadone, but that caused lethargy and weight gain. She was unable to come off the synthetic opioid, either. "I tried to stop and just couldn't handle the withdrawals. The depression was so severe." Michaelides turned to black-market prescription opiates once again — and eventually to heroin. After smoking heroin for three months, Michaelides was ready for another shot at treatment.

This time she visited a private ibogaine-treatment centre in Vancouver. Michaelides paid $8,000 for her 10-day retreat in B.C. "I had to go to my parents to ask them for the money," she said. "I was very lucky that they agreed to pay for it because it saved my life."

Thanks to a single dose of ibogaine, she says, she is no longer dependent on opiates.

New studies confirm the effectiveness of ibogaine in stopping opioid addiction

By Dylan Charles
June 8, 2017

The opioid crisis in America has reached epidemic levels and overdose deaths continue to rise. While the destructive effects of heroin and opioids ravage communities and destroy families, the federal government is considering harsh new mandatory sentences for opioid crimes, demonstrating a heart-breaking disconnect from reality when it comes to disrupting dependence on these insanely addictive and deadly drugs.

“In 2015, more that 52,000 people in the U.S. died from drug overdoses. The majority of those deaths were opioid-related. Nationwide, fatal opioid overdoses increased 652 percent from 2000 to 2015, according to CDC statistics, and every indication is that the problem has grown worse in 2016.”

Opioids in the U.S. are far more deadly than terrorism and even firearms, yet because they fall into the uncomfortable category of addiction and are primarily the result of the legal pharmaceutical industry, the problem is largely ignored by mainstream media, and the government authorized solutions don’t help.

Remarkably, there is a natural medicine for treating opioid addiction which immediately stops withdrawals and detoxes opioids from the body, and also produces a deep spiritual experience that helps an addict to stay sober by showing them the source and reason for their addictive behavior and inspiring them to remain clean.

Extracted from the iboga plant, which is native to the equatorial rainforests of West Africa, ibogaine is psychoactive indole alkaloid that has been known for decades to interrupt opioid addiction. Two recent observational studies have now added to the growing body of evidence in support of ibogaine as perhaps the most effective medicinal treatment known.

“Ibogaine is a psychoactive compound usually extracted from the West African Tabernanthe iboga plant. In animals, a single dose of ibogaine decreases opioid withdrawal and produces sustained reductions in the self-administration of heroin, morphine, cocaine, nicotine and alcohol. Ibogaine is illegal in the U.S., and legal but unregulated in Canada and Mexico."

New Zealand, South Africa, and Brazil currently authorize the use of ibogaine by licensed medical practitioners. While its mechanism is not yet fully understood, it differs from standard opioid agonist treatments such as methadone and buprenorphine which maintain dependence, and thus may show promise as an innovative pharmacotherapy for opioid addiction.

The authors of the studies conclude that given the potential demonstrated by ibogaine’s substantive treatment effect in opioid detoxification, its novel (though not yet fully understood) pharmacological mechanism, and its clinical effect in opioid-dependent subjects who have not satisfactorily responded to other treatments, ibogaine has promise for future research and development as a novel pharmacotherapy for opioid addiction.”

The Mexico study showed that ibogaine administration was associated with substantive effects on opioid withdrawal symptoms and drug use in subjects for whom other treatments had been unsuccessful. 12 out of 30 participants reported 75% reductions in their drug use 30 days following treatment, and 33% reported no opioid use three months later.

The New Zealand study, published on April 12, showed that a single ibogaine treatment could reduce opioid withdrawal symptoms and achieve either cessation from opioids or sustained, reduced use for up to 12 months following treatment. The results indicate that ibogaine may have a significant pharmacological effect on opiate withdrawal. All participants in the study described their ibogaine experience in positive terms.”

Is Ibogaine Treatment Safe?

Ibogaine is listed as a schedule I drug, which implies that the drug has no medicinal value, however, under properly medically supervised conditions, ibogaine is extremely effective, as further confirmed by these two studies. It is important to note that the drug war ban on ibogaine creates a climate in which treatment with the mysterious alkaloid takes place outside of the proper care of qualified physicians, and that when dealing with opioid addicts ibogaine can indeed be dangerous.

In the New Zealand study one of the participants died while undergoing treatment, and an investigation found that the death was likely related to the ingestion of ibogaine, however, it was also attributed to a failure to properly care for the patient.

It needs to be said that there is no magic pill for addiction, as noted by opioid survivor Jeff Cook.

“Iboga is not a magic pill. Iboga is an amazing tool that can free you from the deepest depths of addiction. The spirit of Iboga will teach you everything you need to learn to stay clean, but one must follow these lessons to stay on the right path. Iboga does not change your free will, what Iboga does, is show you the truth. The truth you need to make peace in order to live a happy, drug free life.”

Yet, given the deadly nature of the epidemic at hand and the huge and rising numbers of deaths each year, it is past time to give alternative treatments their due and make them available for those who are at risk of succumbing to opioids.

When he was 13 years old, Jeremy Sutton’s* mother passed away, and he began drinking alcohol to help cope with the trauma. Liquor became cocaine and cocaine became prescription drugs including oxycontin, Hydrocodone and methadone. By the time he turned 18, Sutton was fully addicted to prescription painkillers. His days were designed around getting a fix.

“Opiates were the ones that really stuck with me,” he says, “because they gave me a sort of superpower to deal with the void of being alive.”

While Sutton and a friend who also abused prescription opiates continually made plans to get clean, these plans never stuck. The friend mentioned an alternative addiction therapy he had heard of called ibogaine, but they had no access to the underground treatment. When he was 25, Sutton checked into rehab. It was here that he met a fellow patient who told him about her experience with ibogaine.

“Obviously this person was in rehab, meaning that they had relapsed,” Sutton says, “but their testimonial was incredible.”

The Tabernanthe iboga shrub from West Central Africa

Ibogaine is a naturally occurring substance that causes users to experience an intense psychedelic experience that lasts for 24-36 hours, sometimes longer. This treatment clears the
brain of addictive cravings while offering deep psycho-spiritual insights. “They made it clear that there is still a lot of work to do afterwards,” Sutton says, “but the experience can be profound and can give you the chance to make changes for yourself.”

Derived from the root bark of Tabernanthe iboga shrub, ibogaine is an alkaloid — a group of naturally occurring chemical compounds — that has been used as a ceremonial sacrament by the Bwiti tribe of West Central Africa for thousands of years. It has also been used as a treatment for various addictions since 1962, when the late medical researcher and former heroin addict Howard Lotsof, often referred to as the “father of ibogaine,” discovered its usefulness as what he called an “addiction interrupter.”

Ibogaine has proven particularly effective in treating opiate addiction, with the majority patients requiring only one session. It not only useful in removing the symptoms of drug withdrawal and reducing drug-cravings, but it has also been shown to help users understand and reverse their drug-using behaviors.

Sutton’s fellow rehab patient gave him the phone number of Beverly Weaver, an ibogaine facilitator at a treatment center in Baja, Mexico. Weaver has guided roughly 200 people through treatments during the past six years. Mexico is home to many such centers, as ibogaine is illegal in the United States, as well as various European countries, Brazil and Australia.

While it’s U.S. classification as a Schedule I drug categorizes ibogaine as a highly addictive substance with no medical properties, there is no scientific evidence that it is habit forming. The Internet offers thousands of anecdotal accounts regarding people successfully overcoming drug addictions via ibogaine. Controlled studies of its medicinal properties have taken place in New Zealand and Canada. The YouTube documentary Ibogaine: Rite of Passage chronicles its use. Author Daniel Pinchbeck has also written about traveling to Africa for ceremonial work with Iboga in his 2002 book Breaking Open the Head: A Psychedelic Journey into the Heart of Contemporary Shamanism.

In 2012, the then 26-year-old Sutton flew from his native Houston to San Diego, where a representative from the treatment center picked him up and drove him across the border to Mexico. It was his first time leaving the country, and he was to stay for six days at a total cost of $3,000.

Before arriving in Mexico, Sutton had gotten an EKG and a liver panel to determine the health of his heart and liver. Such tests are critical, as ibogaine can kill patients with compromised cardiac and liver function. It’s also vital that patients are displaying visible signs of withdrawal such as pulse increase and sweating.

After settling in at the center, Sutton took a walk on the beach and began his treatment at 4pm. He was first given a small dose to test his tolerance. Within an hour, this dose had alleviated his withdrawals.

“That’s a really lovely experience," Weaver says, “because in about 45 minutes the withdrawal symptoms go away and the person relaxes. It instills confidence in the person that what’s going to happen is actually going to work.”

Weaver emphasizes that it is essential to have a group of facilitators for each patient, as treatments are long and demanding, often multi-day ordeals. “Not just for sleep relief,” she says, “but energetically, if everyone is together rooting for this person, it has a big impact.” Surrounded by facilitators, Sutton ingested gradually higher doses of ibogaine, administered via capsules, until a predetermined dose based on his weight was reached.

“The first thing I experienced was anxiety and a feeling of electricity going through my whole body. It felt like my heart was beating out of my chest, but they took my blood pressure and everything was in order.”

Sutton then descended into the journey. After taking his third and final capsule, he began losing his motor skills. “I couldn’t lift up my head and was very light sensitive. I noticed a buzzing sound, and it felt like someone had plugged me into an electrical socket. My vision became static, like a static television, when my eyes were shut. I became very nauseous and even more scared. I was starting to lose sensation in my body.”

At this point, however, this period of electricity and frantic thinking to a slowed to a visionary state.

“The vision aspect seemed like I was traveling through the corridors of my own brain. The whole time there was a voice saying, ‘It’s okay; we don’t care what you did. We love you. We’ve always loved you.’ It was very frightening because of the circumstances, but there was always something in the back of my head telling me it was okay, and to relax."

Sutton continues: “The vision tapered down into this experience where I could ask myself any question and get an immediate answer that was crystal clear. Seven hours after I took [the ibogaine], I entered the reflective state and felt like I was getting all of the questions I had answered very clearly.” He laid in contemplative silence for another 12 hours.

21 hours after the ordeal began, Sutton emerged from the journey and found that “there was nothing in my head that was bothering me anymore. I cried a lot too. I remember very specifically that the reason I started crying was because I was not being nice to myself. I realized that I needed to start loving myself, and how much I had not been loving myself up until that point.”

Sutton then drifted to sleep. “I felt like I was floating above my body watching myself lay in bed. I woke up the next day feeling sort of beat up and tired, but in the best place I ever had been in up until that point.”

While there is limited scientific research about how ibogaine works, evidence suggests that the substance resets neurotransmitters that have been programmed for addiction via consistent drug use.

“The simple way I like to explain it,” Weaver says, “is that when you do opiates, they touch receptors in your brain. You do them enough to grow an addiction and you form more of those receptors. When there’s no opiates on those receptors, you’ve got a lot of hungry little mouths yelling ‘I want opiates!’ Iboga goes in and heals all of those hungry little mouths and takes them back to their original state so they’re not hungry anymore.”

Weaver emphasizes that ibogaine does not just treat the addiction, but addresses underlying reasons for the addiction such as abuse and trauma. While profound personal insights are gained, it is vital for users to set themselves up for success after the treatment. “Ibogaine will take care of 49 percent of what you have going on,” Weaver says, “and you’re responsible for the other 51 percent.” Twelve step programs, creative endeavors and overall lifestyle changes are all encouraged.

“It’s not going to make you not an addict anymore,” Sutton says. “It’s going to scramble your brain and reset your head in a way that gives you insight into who you are."

Sutton had struggled with depression and anxiety his entire life, and found that his ibogaine session had alleviated these issues along with his cravings for opiates. After another few days in Mexico, Sutton returned home and began the work of incorporating the lessons ibogaine had taught him. He moved into a new house, cut out unhealthy relationships and focused on his passion for making music.

Four months later, though, his anxiety and depression returned. He found, however, that ibogaine had provided him with new tools to deal with these challenges. “I was able to look back on my experience and saw that my brain operated differently when I was done. I was able to think things through clearer.”

The success rates for ibogaine treatment is still largely unknown, as most of the work is done underground. Weaver says that 70 percent of her patients kick their addictions, and that the overall success rate is 40-50 percent. Comparatively, the success rates for opiate addiction treatment at standard rehab facilities remain low.

Despite its usefulness, Ibogaine is still rare. Weaver believes that on any given night, there are, outside of Africa, 3-5 people in the world doing ibogaine. Still, the small areas of forests in Africa which ibogaine producing trees grow are being harvested at an unsustainable rate. Ibogaine can also be extracted from an African tree called Voacanga, which grows abundantly and is easier to plant.

Sutton’s craving for opiates returned five months after his treatment, and which point he did a second session on his own at home, under the supervision of a family member. Such self-treatment is highly dangerous and not recommended.

Sutton has been clean for two years and is now in Mexico training to be an ibogaine facilitator. “The problem that was eating my life up is pretty much gone", he says. "Ibogaine was a teacher that told me what needed to be done and to do with the knowledge it gave me what I would.”

I happen to have some excellent knowledge on this subject as I just finished a microdosing regime during a period of EXTREME insane abuse. My opinion is that the AA iboga types that proffer an image of the plant as a "one time thing" and after that throw people to the whims of traditional treatment and therapy are dead wrong. Basically I've taken low dose ibogaine with everything imaginable—K, MDX, L, oxycodone, cocaine, whiskey—sometimes in combination and never with negative effects, while in the 10 - 20mg range. In fact, as I made my last album on the most incredible bender, I made sure to take 10mg minimum a day. I found myself functioning optimally on the days I dosed. Sometimes if I ate up to 40mg, I began to feel a bit like I'd eaten a 1/2 a hit, but I'm pretty used to that, so it didn't faze me at all. I would have felt absolutely comfortable driving and worked with no complications. At the end of this month period, I simply stopped all drug use with little to no side effects. This leads me to think there is strong reason to believe that this sort of dosage protocol could greatly assist chronic pain sufferers. So, in my personal experience, low dose ibogaine is perfectly safe with nearly everything, and in no way appears to stress my body more than the chemical itself would.

It does have dangerous interactions with opiods - when used irresponsibly. Now, the literature states that the rootbark is somewhere between 3/4% ibogaine, which means every gram SHOULD have between 30-40 mg. The material I had was VERY active (I've had experience w/hcl before), so I'd eat about a quarter to half gram, thus between 10-20 mg. I did nitrous, MDMA was fine (no serotonin interactions noted), dmster was great, mushrooms fine, salvia don't know but my intuition says fine, and kratom (I had no use for because of all the REAL opiates). All I can say for certain is, at no time did I feel in danger. The ibogaine seemed to only enforce with calming love the feeling that I WOULD make it through the ordeal.

At LOW doses (10-20mg) the opiate reset effect is fairly minimal. It seemed not so much to reset tolerance as to halt its development, which allowed me to use the chemicals I needed
to in a stretch without incurring a massive habit, something that may be INCREDIBLY useful to people in chronic pain management situations. I think that anyone taking it at all should probably have the arrhythmia screening. All I want to do is honestly relay that I feel this compound has saved my life a second time, and that continued low dose usage seems to have compounding positive effects on both my mental state and immune system. It kind of seems to even mitigate administration of itself along with other chemicals, and as time goes on, my drive to take it certainly diminishes. I'm not saying I want to take this stuff forever. I'm saying if I NEED it, I never want to be without it. I've already been screened for arrhythmia, and I'm familiar with ibogaine in general. If that wasn't the case, I'd be much more concerned for my well being...

SANTA CRUZ, CALIF. — The promising results of two observational studies into treating opioid dependence with ibogaine, a naturally occurring psychedelic compound, have been published in the peer-reviewed American Journal of Drug and Alcohol Abuse. Sponsored by the non-profit Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS) in Mexico and New Zealand, both studies show that ibogaine should be further studied as a potential treatment for opioid dependence through rigorously controlled studies.

Ibogaine is a psychoactive compound usually extracted from the West African Tabernanthe iboga plant. In animals, a single dose of ibogaine decreases signs of opioid withdrawal and produces sustained reductions in the self-administration of heroin, morphine, cocaine, nicotine and alcohol. Ibogaine is illegal in the U.S., and legal but unregulated in Canada and Mexico. New Zealand, South Africa, and Brazil authorize the use of ibogaine by licensed medical practitioners. While its mechanism of action is not yet fully understood, it differs from that of standard opioid agonist treatments such as methadone and buprenorphine which maintain dependence, and thus may show promise as an innovative pharmacotherapy for opioid addiction.

The results are particularly notable given the growing opioid epidemic, which the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimate caused 91 deaths per day in the United States in 2016, and which has been recognized as a health policy priority by the White House’s Commission on Combating Drug Addiction and the Opioid Crisis.

The Mexico study, published on May 25, showed that ibogaine administration was associated with substantive effects on opioid withdrawal symptoms and drug use in subjects for whom other treatments had been unsuccessful. Using the Addiction Severity Index and Subjective Opioid Withdrawal Scale as primary outcome measures, the study enrolled 30 participants who received ibogaine treatment at an independent clinic in Mexico. 12 out of 30 participants reported 75% reductions in their drug use 30 days following treatment, and 33% reported no opioid use three months later. The paper is co-authored by Thomas Kingsley Brown, Ph.D. (University of California, San Diego) and Kenneth Alper, Ph.D. (New York University School of Medicine).

As one participant in the Mexico study reported: “Iboga could give an opiate addict several months to half a year of freedom from craving, and a period of time in which to get their life together and learn to face things straightforwardly, directly and honestly. Iboga will not do the work for you.”

The New Zealand study, published on April 12, showed that a single ibogaine treatment could reduce opioid withdrawal symptoms and achieve either cessation from opioids or sustained, reduced use for up to 12 months following treatment. The results indicate that ibogaine may have a significant pharmacological effect on opiate withdrawal. All participants in the study described their ibogaine experience in positive terms. The analysis includes data from 14 out of 15 participants enrolled, with one participant disqualified, and one who died during treatment while under the supervision of a qualified medical practitioner. The paper is co-authored by Geoffrey E. Noller, Ph.D., (Dunedin School of Medicine); Chris M. Frampton, Ph.D. (University of Otago); and Berra Yazar-Klosinski, Ph.D. (MAPS).

Historically, a number of other ibogaine treatment deaths have occurred outside of medically supervised environments. Although there was no evidence that the deceased participant had a preexisting cardiac condition, the coroner’s report suggested that the death was likely related to ibogaine ingestion, though not necessarily to cardiotoxicity. Though an experienced physician, the practitioner “nonetheless was adjudged to have failed in their duty of care” through a failure to appropriately monitor the patient, according to a second investigation into the death. The authors acknowledge the potential shortcoming of ibogaine treatment highlighted by the mortality associated with the therapy, especially in non-medical settings, specifically concerns about potential cardiovascular complications related to ibogaine’s metabolism in the body.

Although the Mexico study had no adverse events, the authors acknowledge specific limitations to this study including the number of participants, the lack of a control group, and the reliance on self-reporting. The authors of both studies emphasize the need for further studies, stating that randomized controlled clinical studies are required to further explore ibogaine’s potential as a legal, regulated treatment option in the U.S.

Ultimately, the authors of the studies conclude that given the potential demonstrated by ibogaine’s substantive treatment effect in opioid detoxification, its novel (though not yet fully understood) pharmacological mechanism of action, and its clinical effect in opioid-dependent subjects who have not satisfactorily responded to other treatments, ibogaine has promise for future research and development as a novel pharmacotherapy for opioid addiction.

The administration to a nicotine or tobacco addict of ibogaine, ibogamine or tabernanthine or non-toxic salts of those alkaloids, of the family apocynaceae, has been discovered to interrupt the physiological and psychological aspects of nicotine or tobacco dependency. One treatment or series of treatments may be effective for one to eighteen months or longer. Treatment consists of the oral, rectal infusion or suppository administration of ibogaine, ibogamine, tabernanthine or their salts in dosage ranges of 1 mg/kg to 60 mg/kg.

A single treatment or series of treatments of ibogaine, tabernanthine or ibogamine or their salts in doses ranging from 1 mg/kg - 60 mg/kg, administered orally or rectally, interrupted the use of nicotine and/or tobacco dependency. Studies in the rat have shown the most efficacious doses to be 40 mg/kg to 60 mg/kg, but the dose can be within the range of 1-60 mg/kg.

In the administration of acceptable dosage forms, any of a variety of preparations may be compounded, for example: capsules, tablets, pills, powder, solutions, injections or suppositories. In addition to the active agent, there may be present additional substances used in the manufacture of pharmaceutical preparations such as binders, fillers and other inert ingredients.

The advantage of this invention is that it allows for the rapid interruption of physical and psychological withdrawal symptoms associated with nicotine/tobacco use.

The following examples are given to illustrate the present and improved method of treating nicotine abuse or dependency and are not intended to limit the scope of the present invention.

EXAMPLE 1

Subject, age 42, was smoking two or more packs of filter cigarettes per day. Subject was administered a single dose of 15 mg/kg of ibogaine. Subject suffered no nicotine withdrawal and has not smoked cigarettes for more than 24 months, at which time tracking ceased.

EXAMPLE 2

Subject, age 34, Subject was smoking one and a half packs of filter cigarettes per day when administered 15 mg/kg of ibogaine HCl. Cigarette smoking continued, but diminished over a thirty day period at which time the subject ceased to smoke cigarettes and maintained this state for sixty days, at which time tracking was discontinued.

EXAMPLE 3

Subject, a 36 year old male had been smoking four to six cigarettes a day for a year. A single treatment with 25 mg/kg of ibogaine interrupted all tobacco use. Subject has had no desire to continue smoking and suffered no discomfort of nicotine withdrawal. Tracking was discontinued after sixty days.

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